A/N: I sincerely apologize for the delay, real-life has caught up to me lately and as well as in-game events. Short chapter this time since I want things to progress quickly so that each pieces are on the board. Enjoy!

"Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success." — Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel

The War Room was silent, safe for the sound of rustling papers and the sharp click of footsteps, an oval table sat at the very center of the room as several officers of different branches were seated or about to take their seats while a lone figure stood at the front and an image projected behind him; particularly the map of Europe and a smaller section with the picture of the American East Coast, the West Coast and Asia.

"Is everyone present?"

All eyes shifted towards the Chancellor, a man who was in his forties, fielding an average build befitting for leadership of the Reich, his steely blue eyes scanned the table for any empty seat.

To which he found one, at the very edge of the table just beside Großadmiral Klaus Edelmann, the Chancellor frowned since he knew the particular individual who owned the vacant seat enough to warrant the excuse for not attending this meeting. The Großadmiral simply did a quick nod of his head towards him to further confirm his thoughts.

"You may begin, Feldmarschall."

The Feldmarschall who had been standing at the front opened his notebook and turned sideways to look at the map briefly before speaking to the gathered high-ranking officials.

"Herr Chancellor. Men. Our attack is in three phases.

Phase One. U-boat and silo-launched missiles to destroy primary targets."

Multiple arrows highlighted from their launch points appeared on the map towards their intended targets.

"London, Belfast, Wales and Scotland. Moscow, Leningrad, Kursk, Kiev, Riga, Minsk, Sevastopol, Stalingrad, Kamchatka, and Vladivostok. Darwin, and Manila. San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Pearl Harbour in the Eastern Pacific. New York and Washington are the last two targets after they've received word of the strikes."

"How long will it take?" the Chancellor asked with an indifferent tone.

"On your order, fifteen minutes from launch."

"And why not Ottawa, Feldmarschall?"

"Defeating Britain would have sufficed to make them surrender." all heads shifted to pay attention to the current Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel; Emil Rosenfeld, who provided the answer to the decision of leaving Ottawa intact.

"So we spare them? How do we know they won't try to stall us or make schemes to help what's left of the British administration?"

"Surely they would accept unconditional surrender and the superiority of our race once the British Empire has collapsed." Emil raised and gestured with his ink pen to emphasize the probability of colonies surrendering after their masters have.

"They will accept that reality after we break them with nuclear hellfire."

Emil conceded by placing down the ink pen on the table, he didn't possess that much power despite being a high-ranking officer. The Chancellor then turned back to the Feldmarschall.

"Destroy Ottawa in Phase One."

"Jawohl, Herr Chancellor."

Großadmiral Klaus grimaced at the thought of using the Heisenberg device on major cities, it's been seventy years or so since they've developed the Wunderwaffe that the late-Führer oh-so-desired, seventy years since the ban of nuclear weapons. But did that stop the Reich? The Greater German Reich had been improving the weapon in secrecy, perfecting and making the yield powerful enough to shake a nation to its core. No one expected anything when these nuclear weapons were tested underground, making the quakes seem natural at first glance and with the vast land of Germany the quakes would only be felt in the Fatherland, Switzerland and Italy. He'd seen the destructive capability of a kilo-yield atomic bomb, but these new warheads? He feared that they would be ten times more powerful than the one tested in the Baltic Sea.

"Continue."

"Phase Two. Our long-range nuclear bombers destroy secondary targets, including Anchorage, Los Angeles, Sacramento in the West. Peking, Delhi, and so on, in the East.

Time to completion, six hours from launch."

The arrows once more arched towards the mentioned targets, launch points originating from Cuba, Japan and Italian-occupied Persia.

"Phase Three. Ground and marine invasion to secure and occupy. We expect total capitulation within two weeks."

Arrows with the symbols of anchors, rifles and tanks appeared heading for Britain in multiple directions, the Soviet Union from Nazi-occupied Poland, allied Romania and Finland, the Caucasus region and through Italian-controlled Afghanistan; South of the Russian Urals where they would have moved their industry in the case the front fell to the Germans. French North Africa would be handled by the Italians as evident from their flags highlighted on the map, the Rising Sun flags are shown heading for the Russian Far East and the rest of Asia that had not been taken.

"What kind of retaliation can we expect?" The Chancellor finally brought up the subject of challenges they may face.

"The strongest resistance will be in our satellite states."

"Particularly the French and the Polish, wherever their partisans operate. And not to mention the Americans would mount significant defense of their homeland. As well as fierce counter-attacks to repel us." Emil chimed in to inform the specifics, to which received several nods from the Chancellor. The Feldmarschall then further added.

"We anticipate American bombers to launch long-range daring missions and the Soviets might throw everything their Red Air Force has. We should also expect major attacks while at sea in their effort to thwart an invasion force."

"Projected enemy casualties?"

"The nuclear attacks will result in forty to eighty million deaths. Ground invasion will add another ten to twenty million, Chancellor."

"And on our side?"

"The Allies only have conventional weapons, and with America who scrapped their nuclear projects seventy years ago. Casualties will be in the hundreds of thousands."

Emil interjected once more, "And mostly French and Polish conscripts. So, acceptable losses." As he finished speaking, the Head of the SS seemed to radiate an ominous glint from his glasses and took a sip from the wine glass containing cognac he brought in with him.

"When can you be ready to launch?"

"By next week after the conference between Azur Lane and the Crimson Axis, should the talks turn sour then we can expect rapid deployment in a few days. Chancellor."

"Good."

Everyone around the oval table rose from their seats simultaneously, eyes focused towards the Chancellor.

"Tomorrow night, I will address the Reich from the Volkshalle. I will secure the Fatherland, and the future of the Reich."

Instantaneously everyone within the room gestured the Nazi or Roman salute in unison.

Klaus left the building in a hurry, dismissive of the two guards doing the salute as he passed, the capital of the Reich in all its grandeur and impressive architecture no longer bringing any sense of awe out of the Großadmiral as he entered an old classic Mercedes Benz designated only to him as the Grand Admiral, he didn't pay no mind to the shipgirl on the backseat with him as she glanced at him.

"How was the meeting, Großadmiral?"

"As expected. The Chancellor is adamant to ignite another world war, and it seems Emil isn't objecting to the idea either… we can only hope that the peace talks are successful and we can once more focus on the Sirens instead of destroying mankind ourselves."

"I'll pass the word to Friedrich, she should be heading out soon to represent Iron Blood in the conference with Azur Lane."

"Thank you, Tirpitz."

Klaus acknowledged the shipgirl's assistance for the matter, the snow-haired battleship slid open the opera window to address the chauffeur.

"Drive."

The car motioned forward as Tirpitz leaned back against her seat, the cold and emotionless expression she made blended well with the Großadmiral's calculated and hardened look, Klaus always kept a professional front towards any subordinate, befitting of a traditional German officer with natural ties to the military.

He was related to the late Großadmiral Karl Dönitz through his grandfather who served under the Supreme Commander of the Kriegsmarine. Having only sworn into office of the Navy two years ago, Klaus had proven that he was worthy of the position since the Chancellor hand-picked him and needed a brilliant mind to manage the Kriegsmarine and to the extent of partially leading Iron Blood. There was even talk of creating an office of Commander for Crimson Axis just as Azur Lane had its own Commander, just that the majority of the command would fall under the Iron Blood for any German who held the position as how an American mainly led the Eagle Union while still retaining authority over Azur Lane.

He took off his black leather gloves, placing them on his lap and fished out a pocket watch. The silver colored accessory displayed its age with the rusting appearance it took and despite that, the hands were moving properly, no doubt the current owner takes care of it endearingly. It was now afternoon.

That meeting took far longer than he expected, for him to fly all the way from Wilhelmshaven Naval Base to Berlin when the details had been explained to him much earlier. It's probably just to make sure that his loyalty remained steadfast, but in terms of efficiency this was unacceptable, depriving any naval operation of it's Admiral.

Klaus was partially in charge of maintaining the Atlantic Wall along the French, Belgian, Dutch and Danish coasts while Norway fell into another Admiral's command. The Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS manned the walls but his sailors and Iron Blood are the ones that served as the first line of defense for those soldiers. If the Kriegsmarine failed then surely the armies would fail.

"Have a transport prepared. We're going to Brest, I think it's time to inspect our U-Boot-Bunker on the frontline." The Admiral stored his pocket watch as he turned to look out the car window without bothering to check Tirpitz who was handling a tablet to arrange their transportation.

[ 1530 hours - Brest, German-occupied France ]

The helicopter banked upon nearing it's given helipad by the ATC tower, Klaus nearly jolted at this as the discomfort from the flight made him glued to his seat. He never liked flying, all the turbulence and shaking sent alarms blaring in his mind everytime without fail. The Admiral gripped onto his seat, being careful not to seem obvious with Tirpitz being seated next to him, she was fortunately preoccupied with the tablet and the headset drowns out any noise he made to pair with the loud sound of the rotor blades.

As soon as the craft touched down he didn't wait for anyone to slide the door open for him, leaving his seat immediately and walked off to a safe distance to straighten his uniform while the helicopter winds down it's engines. Tirpitz follows after him once she's gathered the necessary documents and his suitcase, standing silently just behind the man.

An eager Hafenkommandant rushed onto the helipad to greet the Grand Admiral, with a click of the man's heels he performed the Nazi salute before shaking hands with his superior. Several of the escorts waited with bated breaths down the steps of the helipad, judging by the way the Hafenkommandant was taking deep breaths, these men must have been running all the way from the administration building and that's to be expected since the Admiral's sudden visit only came through at the last minute.

"It's an honor to have you here, Großadmiral. To what do I owe this visit?"

"Ah, just a simple inspection, Hafenkommandant. Your station is at the tip of the Reich's spear, it'd do well to make sure that Brest is in perfect condition. I assume there hasn't been any… mishaps?"

"We are operating normally, I can assure you, Großadmiral. As for any issues…" the port commander seemed hesitant at first but decided that it should be mentioned earlier, "We've received reports of heavy activities in the Atlantic. And I would like to be detailed once we've settled in at the office."

Klaus didn't like the sound of that, he frowned internally and urged that the Hafenkommandant lead the way. The contingent made way for the administrative section of the fortified port, the huge U-Boot-Bunker being the most prominent structure of the naval port and possibly housing tens of U-boats inside and protected from air raids.

"Now … about these reports. Hafenkommandant Volker."

Volker laid out a map of the Atlantic Ocean on the table, pointing at Liverpool before dragging his finger further towards the center of the Atlantic, "The English have sent out a convoy from their major port at Liverpool, their destination is obviously America. Our scouts reported the force is considerably large and made up of three heavy ships with at least four lighter escorts."

"Hmm… they're probably transporting someone important then. Possibly to discuss with the Americans regarding our peace talks. What else other than this?"

Volker tapped on the British port of Gibraltar before highlighting specific positions on the map, "A Spaniard lookout sighted a joint American-British convoy departing from the port, a little over two hours later they were under attack by submarines. Then another wolfpack attacked the next day as observed by a Portuguese station in the middle of the Atlantic."

"Our U-boats?"

"No, Großadmiral. We never ordered any raiding convoy missions, as do the other stations. The attacks were carefully orchestrated and the Spaniard swore they could make out the submarines stalking the convoy as U-boats. They've been waiting for the ships to depart even before the sun has risen."

"Siren Pawns then. That's very clever of them to utilize the appearance of our U-boats. This will deteriorate our relations with the Allies further."

Tirpitz had been studying the map silently while the two spoke, taking note of the daring move by the Sirens to incite yet another conflict and an idea dawned on her at that moment.

"How about we clear up this misunderstanding by sending our ships to escort the convoy?"

Klaus turned to face her, then looked down at the map to take a brief sweep of it with his eyes and then back up at her.

"That seems to be the most plausible thing to do seeing as how we don't have proper means of communication with the Allies. Small force only however. We don't want the escorts of those convoys to be spooked at the sight of heavy ships that could threaten them." the Admiral addressed Volker next, "Contact the nearest Iron Blood station to send out a pair of destroyers. We can't risk our Homefleet destroyers to get ambushed by the Sirens. The shipgirls are adept at handling Sirens so we let them perform their duty."

Volker gave his salute before exiting.

The Admiral breathed out a sigh, walking round the table and found the nearest seat, feeling the cold leather couch welcome him. Klaus leaned on the backrest and shut both his eyes. He's been all over the place since morning and this was the only moment where he could get some degree of rest, albeit just for a few minutes. Klaus could hear shifting sounds within the room, then the faint clinks of something against glass and finally the burbling of liquid. The Admiral's eyes fluttered open in time to spot Tirpitz approaching him with a whisky glass in hand.

"Refreshments, Admiral?"

Klaus nodded in response, reaching out for the beverage as it was passed to him. He motioned his wrist slowly, swishing the cold whiskey around the glass and took a brief sip of it.

The shipgirl excused herself back to the cupboard where she procured the beverage, tidying up the room from there and settled Klaus' suitcase atop the table.

"Admiral, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, what is it?"

"It's regarding your pro-peace stance towards confrontation with the Allies."

Ah… so that's where she's going on this… the Admiral sat up straight before placing the whisky glass on a nearby coffee table, "What of it, Tirpitz?"

"Despite agreeing with the Chancellor on various issues, this is the only topic you are not willing to invest on, at least not publicly of course. I, myself, know that there are consequences of war with the Allies since I've been working in administration alongside you… however…"

"You think that we can win?"

Tirpitz responded with a slow nod.

"I agree." The answer came as a surprise to the shipgirl.

"Then why are you fighting to secure peace with the Allies? If you know that we are capable of winning?"

The Admiral's lips curved up slightly, "I'm confident that we can prevail in a war with the Allies, a short and quick war, that is. If that conflict extends for more than six or ten months… I am doubtful of our chances. Let's not forget that they are not our only enemies. The Sirens dominate the ocean despite our efforts to clear them." Klaus got off the sofa and walked up to the map-dominated table, resting his hands on the edge of it.

"The Reich may have modern weapons to overpower our enemies, but that kind of thinking would only bring us down… we must never forget that the United States is an equal opponent regarding technology. Just like in the previous war, if we allow the Americans to remain unopposed… their war industry will overrun our own."

Tirpitz remained silent, swallowing the explanation for the necessary peace between the two factions. As with Azur Lane and Crimson Axis, the Sirens are a much larger threat than one of their own. It's not about who has the bigger stick in that case, whoever won at the end would have to face the Sirens—and having waded through the fatigue of the war… there would be no winners then.

Volker returned just then bearing news of the rallied order.

"The destroyers Z2 and Z23 have been dispatched from a naval base at Lisbon! They had recently finished refueling to resume patrols before the order is given, estimated arrival to the Allied convoy is at least—"

Klaus viewed the tactical map displaying the real-time positions of the two destroyers currently tasked to meet the Allied convoy in an intercept course at flank speed. In addition, he had given the order to sortie a U-boat wolfpack from Brest to hunt down a possible Siren reinforcement. If those Siren submarines are taken out then he needs to be sure that there are no surface vessels to mitigate their losses. For that reason, every Iron Blood warship was recalled back to their own bases except for the two shipgirls. So the U-boats have every right to sink the Pawns that are not affiliated directly to Iron Blood.

Destroyer Division IV was now twenty miles from the intercept, their radar having detected the bearings of the massive Allied convoy and the four escorts were zig-zagging, taking turns to scout ahead for any ambushes being set-up. The Admiral patiently waited, eyeing the mass of dots coordinating and exchanging information with encrypted datas. As a naval officer he was impressed, the person in-charge of the convoy must know what he's doing.

The lead escort suddenly shifted course, heading for DesDiv IV and Klaus narrowed his eyes. How far of a range did the Allies have for their radar? He knew that Britain and America had been working together on radar technology during the forties, that was how the Battle of Britain had been won and many more due to the superiority in gathering information. And true enough, the escort ship was staying it's course to close the distance between her and the shipgirls.

Z2 perked up as the bearing of the ship she was tracking suddenly changed, the silhouette of the warship could be seen at the horizon and she was steaming towards her at flank speed as evident by the amount of smoke discharged from her boilers.

"We've been spotted." the shipgirl slowed down which prompted Z23 to also lower her speed, she began signalling the American warship with her spotlight.

The corvette responded in turn shortly after, and the message was clear; "Power down your engines and stay where you are."

Z2 glanced towards her pair upon receiving the message, "Do as they say. There's no need to raise further suspicion by ignoring the demand."

"We're not supposed to harm them anyways, but we still have the right for self-defense should they attempt to injure us first." Z23 complied to the demand, her engines coming to a halt after Z2 had done so.

The two shipgirls were situated within the Officers' Wardroom or Mess Hall, seated before a metal table while two security personnel were posted at the door to watch over them. Their reception aboard wasn't so smooth as evident by the looks from sailors and officers alike.

No surprise since they've been under constant attack by the harassing Siren pawns, disguised as Iron Blood ships which prompted their reactions to seeing Iron Blood destroyers heading for the convoy.

The metal door cranked open and the guards saluted as the Captain of the vessel entered, walked up to the table and sat down on the opposite side.

"I'm the CO of this ship and in overall command of this convoy, my name is Thomas Halifax. State your identities and reason for operating in this sea sector."

"We are envoys operating under Großadmiral Edelmann's orders to the escort commander of this convoy, I am Z2 and this is Z23. Our arrival has to do with the issue of the raiders assaulting your convoy."

The atmosphere was tense with the American Captain staring down at them, his eyes as if trying to find details to corroborate the attacks on his convoy to the shipgirls.

He crossed his arms before replying, "The Supreme Commander of the Kriegsmarine? And what of the mentioned raiders? I've seen them during one of the chases, they're U-boats."

"Correction, they are Siren Pawns. Do not be fooled even though the Pawn U-boats displayed intelligence in tactics, Siren humanoids can clearly control them remotely without hindering their present duties. We are here to inform you that Iron Blood and the Kriegsmarine have not sent out raiding convoys since the last confrontation in 1999. Here are the documents detailing the Großadmiral's words and orders to the letter."

Z2 placed the sealed documents on the table, having carried the package within a knapsack so as to avoid it being ruined by seawater. The American picked the documents, undoing the seal and read through them meticulously. After a few minutes he settled the papers back down on the table, the gears in his head processing the contents of the documents and his eyes laid on the two shipgirls.

Halifax returned to the bridge with his hands behind his back and head hung low, he glanced around to see that nearly everyone was staring at him expectantly.

They deserve to know the truth.

"We've been constantly harassed by submarine and torpedo attacks these past few days, each night those assaults grow more intense and we have lost many lives from the sinking of the convoys we're supposed to protect. What was initially thought to be a wolfpack of Germans or Iron Blood mass-produced ships… are actually Siren controlled Pawns. Even the Kriegsmarine's Grand Admiral went this far just to notify us of this by sending those two shipgirls… that's how important this intel is. Those rumors of peace talks we've been hearing, they might just be true since this is the first time another navy has put aside their safety to risk sending documents across the sea to this similarly endangered convoy."

He studied the facial expressions of the young and seasoned veterans alike, at least they believed the information passed onto them so that's something the two shipgirls can be relieved of.

Halifax grinned, "And we've been reinforced. Those shipgirls, Z2 and Z23 will be joining our escort ranks to deter the Siren's next ambush. Our depth charges are nearly diminished so it's great news to have two more ships with full complements. Signal Cooper and Kidd to cooperate with our allies."

The mood brightened inside the bridge, the crew members smiled and resumed their duties. The sound of clicking from the spotlight shutters indicating that the message is being sent to the Eagle Union shipgirls.

Kidd had finished translating the signals sent from the corvette when she was greeted by the Iron Blood destroyer; the Z2.

"Ich komme in Frieden, Union Zerstörer."

"Hello. A pleasure to be acquainted with you, Z2. I'll be your dance partner for the next few days, I'm in charge of sonar duties while you be the shepherd." The Eagle Union destroyer extended her hand towards the Iron Blood destroyer, the two shook hands before discussing tactics as a working pair.

To the men of the convoy, this scene bears testament that conflict isn't the only answer between them and their so-called rivals. While ideology may have separated them, it was clear that both wanted what's best out of this crisis involving the Sirens.

The same thought crossed Klaus' mind within the hastily prepared war room as he breathed out a sigh of relief when Z2 transmitted a message back to the naval base that the documents had been passed and the Americans allowed the shipgirls to assist them. The Admiral celebrated in silence, turning away from the tactical display and collapsed on a chair after an intense brain-racking moment when the shipgirls were brought onboard the lead ship of an escort vessel. He didn't know how it would play it out, whether the girls would be taken into custody or something much worse.

Klaus shifted his eyes towards the door, he knew beyond that was his assistant handling paperwork and helping out with the staff within the building. The German battleship had insisted that she perform administrative tasks over staying idle, and the Admiral currently didn't need anything from her so work it is.

With the issue regarding the ploy to pin blame on Iron Blood and the Reich as culprits of the attacks on Allied convoy out of the way, the German Admiral can finally turn his attention to other simpler matters such as the condition of the Atlantic Wall and afternoon reports from every station of said defenses.

This was going to be a long day indeed.

A/N: Right, I've been wondering whether I should move this book to the Azur Lane section instead of the Crossover alley since people might have a hard time looking into this part or they rarely come here. I don't really promote my work because I think it's sorta... it just doesn't bode well on me, that's all. But I will appreciate it if people try to share my work.

What I can say is that my confidence isn't doing good, it has been like so for quite some time before I've decided to post this ambitious project. I wrote in Wattpad something like a year ago or so, and due to the unpopular of stories with plot compared to the majority of simple smut there—I canceled all my work and stopped writing for months. I'm not trying to ask for sympathy here but rather just express how I feel regarding being an author to which I thought was simple.

And my hope for this story, I can keep stepping forward through the end. I'm determined to complete this book. You can expect delays but I won't abandon this book till I've departed from reality.

I sincerely thank you for the support in the way of the Favorites and Follows. And I'll see you in the next chapter.

P.S - Should I answer questions in the comments or should I just do that when I drop another chapter? Or would you prefer I DM you personally?